The new gender gap: technology

WASHINGTON The good news is that the girls are closing the gap in math and science achievement. The bad news is that a new gender gap in technology has developed.

That's the latest findings by the American Association of University Women Educational Foundation, detailed in a study entitled, ''Gender Gaps: Where Schools Still Fail Our Children.''

''Girls have narrowed some significant gender gaps, but technology is now the new 'boys' club' in our nation's public schools,'' said AAUW executive director Janice Weinman.

''While boys program and problem-solve with computers, girls use computers for word processing, the 1990s version of typing,'' she said.

On the other hand, girls today enroll in more math and science courses and take more advanced placement courses in English, biology and foreign languages, she said.

From 1990 to 1994, girls' enrollments in advanced placement and honors calculus and chemistry also improved relative to boys. The addition of a writing skills section on the 1997 PSAT meant that girls scores on that exam increased and narrowed the gender gap from 4.5 to 2.7 points, the AAUW said.

But girls take fewer computer science and computer design courses than boys.

Sandy Bernard, president of the AAUWs says that as technology changes the workplace, schools must work smarter and harder to ensure that girls graduate with the ability to compete and succeed in the workplace.

''The gender gaps we see are evidence that public schools are failing to fully prepare girls for the 21st century,'' she said. ''High schools still tend to steer girls and boys into School-to-Work programs that prepare them for traditional occupations for their gender.''

By ADOLFO MENDEZ

High School News & Graphics

When it comes to gender in the classroom, the experts generally agree: boys and girls usually are treated differently.

Beyond that, don't expect to find much consensus about what that means or how to solve it.

Many experts believe girls are the ones shortchanged. They cite studies that indicate teachers show preferential treatment toward boys by calling on them more often than they call on girls, and by giving them most of the positions of leadership.

On the other side of the debate are experts who say boys are automatically assumed to be troublemakers and disruptive and, as a result, are often treated unfairly by many teachers. These experts cite statistics that indicate boys drop out of school at higher rates than girls do, and more boys get low grades in school than do girls.

One attempt to solve gender bias in the classroom has been gaining popularity in many parts of the country: single-sex education.

The rise in interest among some educators in all-boys or all-girls schools stems from a 1991 report by the American Association of University Women Educational Foundation, an advocacy group based in Washington, D.C.

At that time, the AAUW said girls in America's public schools were being neglected in the classroom in favor of more outspoken boys. This neglect was directly responsible for much of the low self-esteem found in teen-age girls, the report said.

The response was a flurry of interest in single-sex education in public and private schools nationwide.

In California, Gov. Peter Wilson signed legislation that makes $5 million available for single-sex schools.

In New York's Spanish Harlem, the newly created Young Women's Leadership School is the only all-girl public school in the state. It has 165 students most of them African-American or Hispanic in seventh, eighth and ninth grades.

Some places experiment with single-sex classes, as in Manassas, Va., for example, where students who attend Marsteller Middle School are separated by sex for math. The school has an all-girl algebra class.

Some of the critics of single-sex schools are among the most outspoken in the cause to end gender bias in the classroom.

Critics like Michael Meyer, executive director for the New York Civil Rights Coalition, say single-sex schools are destructive.

''We object to these schools on the basis of their perpetuating sex roles and sex stereotypes,'' Meyer said, firing off a series of objections covering legal, social and educational reasons.

His group, along with the New York Civil Liberties Union and NOW are challenging the constitutionality of the Young Women's Leadership School, saying that Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 forbids schools that receive federal funds from discrimination on the basis of gender.

Meyer said the groups haven't made any headway in their two-year efforts to persuade public opinion or the U.S. Department of Education against the all-girls school.

''We can't fight in the media those pictures of those precious little girls in their uniforms,'' he said.

Even more ironic to some observers is the stand on single-sex schools now taken by the AAUW, the group credited with bringing heightened national attention to the issue of gender bias in schools. Earlier this year, the AAUW released a separate study denying that hard evidence exists to prove girls perform better academically in all-girls schools than they do in coed schools.

''For scholars who have conducted extensive research, there is no evidence to support a generalization that single-sex education works or is better for girls,'' confirms Pamela Haag, Ph.D, senior research associate for AAUW.

And although the AAUW supported experiments in separate schools in 1995, Haag said their latest report doesn't contradict earlier assertions by the association.

''As an organization, we don't oppose these initiatives,'' she said. ''We were really just concerned about the educational outcome of all-girls schools,'' she said.

After reviewing more than 50 studies on the subject, the AAUW concluded that separating by sex is not the solution to gender inequity in education, Haag said.

''As a researcher, I've been surprised by the generalizations I've read in articles that say 'researchers agree that single-sex education is better,' '' she said. ''I wasn't surprised to find that there was a lack of consensus.''

But there's no lack of solutions provided by the players involved in this debate.

''You don't cure racism by getting black students out of classrooms, and you don't cure sexism by taking girls out of the classroom,'' Meyer said.

Elizabeth Marino, a 17-year-old senior at Good Counsel, a Catholic school in Chicago, prefers the all-girl environment.

''I think socially, going to an all-girls school you make better friends with the girls because that's all you have,'' she said. ''There are certain things you can talk about without boys in the classroom.''

Dan Cheeseman is a senior at St. Patrick's High School, an all-boys high school in Chicago. ''Going to an all-guys school, you can just concentrate. I can go to school looking like I want,'' he said.

And in the absence of female students, Cheeseman and his friends are more free to speak their mind about girls, he said.

''It's not like we're girl crazy,'' he said, ''but we may talk about women more'' than he might at a coed school.

Single-sex schools aren't relics of the past, Cheeseman said. ''In a way, they're not necessary, it's just choices people make. You can probably concentrate more on your studies, you're not concerned with if you raise your hand and get it wrong. Girls aren't going to laugh.''

The solution to gender bias is not single-sex education, but education of teachers in coed schools, Meyer said. ''The remedy to sexism is to teach teachers how to deal with sexism.''

Dr. Pat O'Reilly, head of the Division of Educational Studies at the University of Cincinnati, said gender bias is something his college deals with when instructing prospective teachers.

''One of the ways we plan to deal with this issue is to encourage teachers to stop calling on the first person that raises his hand, because boys are more apt to raise their hands,'' he said.

According to O'Reilly, girls tend to think about an answer before they respond.

''We are training teachers to be more patient and wait a minute before they call on a student,'' he said.

''We need to make sure that girls become more confident and teach boys to think before they speak.''

On that point, the AAUW is an agreement. ''Good education is grounded in basic principles rather than separating students by sex,'' Haag said.

Those principles include smaller class sizes, teachers who work toward gender equity and learning environments that are free from peer ridicule, she said.